Luscious feast served up at Leamington parish church

SATURDAY’s concert was billed as a Feast for Saint Cecilia – and a feast of luscious and uplifting music it certainly was.

Handel’s Ode on St Cecilia’s Day showed the choir in fine well-balanced form supporting the soloists Celine Forrest and the clear and expressive tenor Adam Tunnicliffe as they explored Handel’s clever realisation of in music of Dryden’s poem about the beauty and power of music.

Much less well-known was Gerald Finzi’s For St Cecilia, a beautiful shimmering and shifting piece which had the choir working hard to match the verve and volume of the orchestra. The Birmingham Philharmonic provided two Ralph Vaughan Williams lollipops of their own.

A rapt audience enjoyed the ever popular Lark Ascending, played with exquisite feeling by the guest soloist David Adams, leader of the Welsh National Opera, followed later by the Norfolk Rhapsody, an undeservedly rarer gem.

Julian Parkin ended this moving concert of fine English music with an exhilarating performance of Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens, as heard at the Royal Wedding earlier this year.

A real feast of English music.

Malcolm Burns